Police taped off the crime scene where a woman's body was found this morning at the New Community Gardens complex in Newark.Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — Authorities are investigating whether a pair of weekend stabbings in Newark — one that killed a woman whose naked body was found on a stoop and another that left a young boy in critical condition — are related.

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio issued a joint statement today saying their agencies were "investigating the possibility that the incidents are related, but no conclusions can be drawn at this time."

"At this stage in the investigation, the incidents do not appear to be random attacks," the statement read.

The boy, whose age was put at 8 or 9, remained in critical condition today at University Hospital, part of the sprawling campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, just across South Orange Avenue in Newark, where the stabbing victims were found. Some of the same detectives were at the nearby scenes of both incidents today.

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Authorities said the second incident, on Newton Street, involved a black female who was pronounced dead at the scene after having suffered multiple stab wounds. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

The woman’s body remained in front of the garden-style apartment for several hours after being discovered, shielded from view by white sheets hung by investigators. Yellow police tape closed off the long block of Newton Street, between 14th and South Orange avenues.

The resident who discovered the woman’s body said she emerged from her house around 10 a.m. and saw the body lying at the base of her stoop, under a bush. The resident, who asked that her name not be used, said the dead woman did not look familiar.

The body was removed more than three hours later, at about 1:30 p.m.

Both locations are apartments run by the New Community Corporation, a local developer of affordable housing and a social service provider. A New Community spokeswoman did not return calls today.

Residents and their families said they were concerned by the stabbings.

"My mother is right here, right smack dab in the middle," said Shariff Coleman, 38. He had just eaten breakfast with his 63-year-old mother at her home in a senior apartment complex run by New Community that sits between the Morris Avenue high-rise where the boy was found and the New Community Gardens townhouse apartments where the woman’s body was discovered.

"It’s sad, it’s wicked," Coleman said. "I’m no angel, not by a long shot, but I’m not that wicked."

In the wake of this morning’s discovery, a Newark police officer stapled posters on surrounding telephone poles providing a toll-free tip line, 877-NWK-TIPS (877-695-8477) and the promise of a cash reward, while the statement from the prosecutor’s office asked anyone with information to call the county Major Crimes Task Force at (877) 847-7432 or (973) 621-4586.